


Angels and Aloe

by Ryah_Ignis



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Backrubs?, Beach Vactaions, M/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 08:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11642634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryah_Ignis/pseuds/Ryah_Ignis
Summary: Dean gets sunburnt on vacation.  Cas has some aloe.





	Angels and Aloe

Dean is going to die like this.

In retrospect, he probably should have seen it coming.  He was always destined to die in the worst way possible.  And considering he's been shot, stabbed, and ripped apart by hellhounds, any sort of traditionally painful just doesn't cut it anymore.

No, he's going to die by aloe.  More specifically, an ex-angel wielding aloe cream.

"I'm good, Cas.  Thanks."

Cas huffs. "Your back is one shade darker than last night's bartender's lipstick."

As per usual, Dean tries and fails to suppress a totally irrational swell of jealousy at a comment like that.  Cas is free to notice whatever lipstick he wants.  Which is precisely why he can't be the one to rub aloe on to Dean's back.  That dumb little part of Dean's brain that bristles whenever Cas so much as glances at another person will never shut up.

"It is _not_ that burnt!" he says indignantly, even as he twists to try to see the damage for himself. "Is it?"

Cas confirms. "It is."

Damn it all to hell.

"Sam can get it when he gets back.  Not like he hasn't done it before."

Of course, those were burn marks from a particularly wayward dragon case, not sunburn from falling asleep on the beach, but Dean is pretty sure the principles still apply.  Though this might be slightly more painful to both his back and his pride.

"Just let me."

Dean dodges his reach, nearly colliding with the coffee table.  Cas looks a little hurt as he flops down on the couch.  That's probably Dean's imagination.

"This is a pretty good little place, huh?" he asks, mostly to change the topic.

Sam found it on TripAdvisor.  It's pretty rare to find a non-sketchy condo that will accept their totally-sketchy IDs, but it doesn't look half bad.  They have a kitchenette with a skillet so that Dean can make pancakes in the morning.  Two bedrooms--Dean and Cas took the two twins while Sam called the king in the master.  A tiny living room with a TV and a small bookshelf with a couple true crime novels Sam has been steadily picking his way through.

"It's nice." Cas sets the aloe cream down on the coffee table as he sits on the couch. "I'm glad Sam suggested it."

Dean thought he was crazy at first.  They don't do beach vacations.  Sure, Dean lobbied hard with Dad back in the day to get Sam a few days at national parks and stuff like that, but certainly not the beach. But this last week has been one of the most relaxing of his life.

(It probably has something to do with the fact that he can glance across the room in the middle of the night to check that Cas is breathing, but Dean staunchly ignores that.)

Cas picks up his book, a biography on some person Dean doesn't care about and probably hasn't heard of, and ends the conversation.  His lips are pursued.  For the life of him, Dean can't work out why he'd be upset.  Shrugging (and ignoring the pain that blossoms when he stretches his skin) Dean reaches for his shirt and starts to struggle into it.  Cas’s eyes snap up.

“You’re an idiot.”

With that, he yanks the t-shirt out of Dean’s hands.  Admittedly, Dean has had this exact fantasy before, but it didn’t include a sunburnt back.  He follows Cas’s lead as he neatly spins him around and sets him down on the couch.  Cas’s eye roll registers as a 9.5 on the Cas is Annoyed Scale, so Dean doesn’t argue.

“Just relax.”

Dean is so utterly hyper-focused, his brain refusing to turn off for even a second of this, that he nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of Cas getting the bottle open.  It takes a few seconds for Cas to get the lotion on his hands before he reaches for Dean’s back.  When he does, little goosebumps erupt all over his skin, only half to do with the coolness of the lotion.

“I told you to move your blanket into the shade,” Cas admonishes as he starts rubbing in small, soothing circles into his skin.

Dean deserves an Oscar for his ability to speak in full sentences right now. “Not helping.”

Okay, partial sentences.

When he turns his neck—only for Cas to swat him on the back of the head so he can go back to his work—Cas has a fond little smile on his face.  There’s no way he’s misinterpreting that, right?

There totally is.  He’s got to be misinterpreting it.  This is just guys being dudes.  Standard.  Bros totally give each other really nice massages for their sunburns.  And they totally make embarrassing noises when their bro somehow manages to get the knot behind their left shoulder that’s been driving them insane for the last week.

Yep.  Nothing out of the ordinary about this at all.

But when he swivels around again, Cas doesn’t look mortified.  In fact he’s—is that a smirk?

“You need your memory foam,” Cas comments mildly, the possible-smirk gone before Dean even really has a chance to register it.

Dean is fairly certain that it doesn’t take this long to get aloe on, but then, he’s not complaining.  Cas has a knack for somehow massaging all of the areas of his backhat have started to hurt—oh, sue him, he’s forty—without aggravating the sunburn.  By the time he’s done, Dean is close to jelly in his hands.

“There.  Better?”

“Much.”

Later, Dean isn’t exactly sure who started it, but somehow he winds up on his back on the couch with Cas bracketing his hips with his knees.  He barely has a moment for his brain to get with the picture before they’re kissing.  It’s like being a teenager in someone’s basement again, messy and quick because someone could come downstairs any moment.

Then as soon as it started, it’s over.  Cas draws back, a look of horror on his face.  Dean’s heart, which has been on the weirdest roller coaster of its life, plummets.  He shouldn’t have done that.  Now everything’s going to be weird—

“Your back!”

Cas helps him into a seated position.  It’s only then that Dean’s back starts to sting again, a consequence of the couch.

Dean decides to try his luck. “I guess you’re just going to have to put on another layer.”

Cas rolls his eyes again, but this time, it’s affectionate. “I guess I will.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Comments are, as always, greatly appreciated :)


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